City explores Financial Empowerment Center to expand no‑cost, one‑on‑one counseling

Tempe staff and a national nonprofit told the City Council work study session the city is exploring a Financial Empowerment Center (FEC) to provide no‑cost, individualized financial counseling to residents and to support housing stability and poverty reduction efforts.

Tim Birch, Tempe community health and human services director, and Rose Harvey, manager of FEC Innovations at Cities for Financial Empowerment Fund (CFE Fund), briefed the council on the FEC model and local planning steps. Birch said the center is intended to link financial counseling to homelessness prevention, eviction prevention and other city priorities. Harvey described the national model: it is a city‑led public service contracted to nonprofits that provide professionally trained counselors; services are available at no cost to any resident age 18 or older without documentation or income restrictions.

Harvey said CFE Fund has worked with local governments for a decade. She said the model operates in 37 cities and counties nationwide, with about 20 additional jurisdictions in planning, and that national program partners report serving roughly 189,000 residents and recording approximately $315 million in debt reduction and $61 million in savings over program lifetimes. The program uses a Salesforce case‑management platform supplied by CFE Fund to track client outcomes and program metrics.

Tempe staff said CFE Fund provided a $20,000 planning grant to support local design work. Birch and Harvey described a planning pipeline that includes identifying a local government manager to oversee the service, issuing an RFP to select a nonprofit counseling provider, creating a referral network with city services and community partners, and designing marketing and training. CFE Fund said it offers a one‑time launch grant of up to $150,000 and supports cities in securing matching funds.

Councilmembers asked about local partnerships and target populations. Councilmember Chin and others urged integration with existing programs such as College Connect, Rio Salado Community College and Arizona State University, the VITA tax program, veteran services, school counselors and housing voucher programs; staff said those constituencies would be part of outreach planning. Vice Mayor Garland and others asked whether small business owners and micro‑entrepreneurs could be supported; Harvey said FEC counselors commonly coordinate referrals to small‑business assistance and advise on separating personal and business finances.

Staff said the planning timeline is roughly eight to 12 months to complete community planning, an RFP and implementation steps; council members asked whether parts of the timeline could be accelerated to six to eight months, and staff said they would consult technical advisors while preserving program quality.